Comics What's some good older stories to collect?

[martywest]

I've been back into comics for about 3 years now and managed to collect just about all the major Marvel titles from vol 2 forward. I would now like to start getting some of the older books, but I know that getting all of volume 1 is totally unrealistic. What I've been doing is trying to get some older story arcs. For instance, I'm about 75% of the way through getting each and every comic in the clone saga; not because it's a great story, but it is a piece of Spider-man history that should not be ignored. What other stories would be worth getting. I was thinking about maximum carnage, but after that, I'm a little fuzzy on what happened during the 80's and 90's with Spider-man. I once saw a list of every issue of Spider-man that contained the Hobgoblin on the internet, but now I cannot find that list anyplace. That would be a worthy undertaking I think. Any thoughts?

 

[Citizen_Kaine]

The big eighties stories are, Kravens Last Hunt, Death of Jean Dewolf (Spec 107-110), Saga of the Alien Costume (ASM 252-259) and Nothing Can Stop the Juggarnaut (ASM 229-230)

All of the above are collected in tpb form, as well There's an Origin of The Hobgoblin tpb, thats massivley out of print but contains (ASM 238-239, 244-245, Spec 85, and ASM 249-251)

I'm sure you know about the Death of Gwen Stacy's and Clone Genesis stories of the seventies

Ninties has a few good stories mostly mini series though, Lost Years, Redemption, Hobgoblin Lives, are all excellent stories. In the mainstream books check out Spec 200, ASM 400, Blood Brothers, Revelations, Goblins at the Gate, and pretty much every single Spectacular spider-man from 240 - 262

 

[The Joker]

Nothing Can Stop the Juggarnaut (ASM 229-230)

I never saw why that story was such a big deal. Yeah, it was a fun story but nothing significant or ground breaking happened in it. It's just Spidey trying to stop Juggernaut.

Anyway, I recommend the Death of Captain Stacy, which is availible in TPB, The Octopus/Owl war in Spectacular Spider-Man #73-79. Awesome story that is, and one of the big ones from the 80's too.

 

[Ludachris333]

I never saw why that story was such a big deal. Yeah, it was a fun story but nothing significant or ground breaking happened in it. It's just Spidey trying to stop Juggernaut.

Anyway, I recommend the Death of Captain Stacy, which is availible in TPB, The Octopus/Owl war in Spectacular Spider-Man #73-79. Awesome story that is, and one of the big ones from the 80's too.

I second that, and also say you should pick up any issue of when larsen/mcfarlane was on the book. that was the high point for marvel.

 

[MyPokerShirt]

complete the clone saga up to revelations.its great.
the juggernaut story is great nowadays cos it shows spidey as an A-lister. it's a must have as much as The Boy Who Collected Spider-Man is imo

 

[Ludachris333]

complete the clone saga up to revelations.its great.
the juggernaut story is great nowadays cos it shows spidey as an A-lister. it's a must have as much as The Boy Who Collected Spider-Man is imo

I love that story.

 

[Kraven]

Some I didn't see mentioned included the early Venom stories:
ASM #299(cameo)-#300(first full appearance)
ASM #315-317

and Return of the Sinister Six is another I really enjoyed:
ASM #334-339

 

[DACrowe]

The first 100 issues of ASM (essiential is called essiential for a reason). I'm bein too fair, make it the first 130 issues. I know you can't get all (or most of them) but the essiential books and what little you can get in tpb (Death of Gwen Stacy, etc.) and so forth is nice.

A good little era is the Black Cat era which ties into the Hobgoblin era in the '80s which encompasses probably the best time period of Spider-Man comics since Stan Lee's original run, culminating in the death of Jean DeWolff. Also Annual #21 is a must as the marriage issue. Check out early Venom if you wish (popular, not the best era though).

Then you might as well just pick up PPSM #75 which fills you on the tragedy of the '90s both in the comics and in the writing before it. That should keep you up to speed (outside of a few stories from DeMathis here and there and the early '90s, there are very few good stories from that era. There are a few, The Lizard Within, At Goblin's Gate, Hobgoblin Lives, Sins of our Fathers, but they are few and far between though).

 

[Narynan]

I enjoyed the first Hobgoblin run to a degree, ASM 316-317 with 2nd venmon runs, ASM 350, vs Dr. Doom. and yea, death of Kraven, was fantastic too...

Umm, brain fart, cant figure it out.

 

[Shmoil]

Hi, I've been wanting to ask this, and this seemed like a good place to ask so..... what are the issues that make up the clone saga? I too am trying to collect, but I don't really know where this saga begins and ends. I know about Revelations where it ends, but other than that I'm pretty confused about it all. does anyone really know?

 

[Kraven]

Well, you can actually kind of look at it as two stories...

The original took place in issues #141-150 of Amazing Spider-Man.
The clone returned in the arc "Power and Responsibility" which went through the following issues:
Web of Spider-Man #117
Amazing Spider-Man #394
Spider-Man #51
Spectacular Spider-Man #217

It continued in all of the ongoings until Revelations. There's a list of all the issues in the "Official Fans of Reilly" thread if you need it.

 

[Shmoil]

Ah, ok, thanks. I've wanted to read it for some time, to see how bad it really is, or if it's all that bad at all, but I never knew where it was. thanks.

 

[martywest]

Shmoil, go to wikipedia.com and type in clone saga. A fairly large page comes up which gives a list of all the issues collected. It's kind of a large list, containing over 125 issues, but none of them are all too pricey to buy; I paid an average of $3 each. There is also a link on that page to an article called "The life of Reilly", which is a 35 part rundown of the entire thing; very detailed.

 

[Donald Thomas]

The big eighties stories are, Kravens Last Hunt, Death of Jean Dewolf (Spec 107-110), Saga of the Alien Costume (ASM 252-259) and Nothing Can Stop the Juggarnaut (ASM 229-230)

All of the above are collected in tpb form, as well There's an Origin of The Hobgoblin tpb, thats massivley out of print but contains (ASM 238-239, 244-245, Spec 85, and ASM 249-251)

I'm sure you know about the Death of Gwen Stacy's and Clone Genesis stories of the seventies

Ninties has a few good stories mostly mini series though, Lost Years, Redemption, Hobgoblin Lives, are all excellent stories. In the mainstream books check out Spec 200, ASM 400, Blood Brothers, Revelations, Goblins at the Gate, and pretty much every single Spectacular spider-man from 240 - 262

Aloha,
Many of those stories recommended can be read at the link in my sig.
Check it out.
Spidey rules

 

[Chris Wallace]

The Child Within.
It's a great story arc from the VERY early nineties dealing with Harry & Peter's issues. It also shows that not everything in the 90's was crap.

 

[PalmerTheThing]

Meh. the story that I was dying to collect was the issue of USM 30-35. The orgin of the symbiote. I bought it like two years ago.

 

[shinlyle]

The Child Within.
It's a great story arc from the VERY early nineties dealing with Harry & Peter's issues. It also shows that not everything in the 90's was crap.

DAMN STRAIGHT!! Also check out SSM#180 and 200 for the conclusion of the Harry/Green Goblin 2 story.

I recommend the following:

-Essential Spider-Man #1-7
These collect AF#15, as well as ASM #1-one-hundred and something.
-Essential Spectacular Spider-Man vol.1
Collects the early issues of SSM
-ASM #248
The Kid Who Collected Spider-Man. Heart-breaking story.
-ASM#229-230
Spidey vs. Juggernaut. Great story.
-Amazing Spider-Man Wedding Annual
See our hard-luck hero finally have some luck come his way.
-ASM #200
Return of the Burglar
-Kraven's Last Hunt

I'm sure I could think of some more, but I'm a little too pooped right now.

 

[Chris Wallace]

Nice to see you have my back. I just re-bought all six issues of the GG2 story.

 

[shinlyle]

Nice to see you have my back. I just re-bought all six issues of the GG2 story.

No problem, man! I love that story. It's the perfect illustration of how Harry feels about Peter. The final scene with Harry and Peter in that story is just beautiful.

Also, the sub-plot with Vermin was very hearfelt.

 

[Chris Wallace]

Where the hell is DeMatteis anyway? The Spider-books need him even more than they need Defalco.

 

[PalmerTheThing]

ok then......

 

[Chris Wallace]

martywest, you need to PM Themanofbat; if there's any golden oldies we've missed he'll point you to them. It's kinda his specialty.